Market Momentum: Tech-Enabled Business Services Market Activity, H2 2008

Many IT service providers are seeking to embed themselves deeper in the core business processes of their customers. In the process, they are uncovering new market opportunities that are increasingly differentiated from traditional IT services work. Service providers that used to sell technology capabilities to IT professionals are finding that the right mix of industry-specific consulting, system integration, and delivery capabilities means they can sell more complete, value-added technology solutions to business customers. While we believe these "business services" will be increasingly important over the next decade, most services vendors still do not distinguish clearly between the services they sell to IT buyers and the services they offer to business buyers. To track the evolution of the business services market, we reviewed our database of market announcements from 23 leading IT services/outsourcing vendors and looked for the deals and news that are changing the direction of the IT services/outsourcing market. From an analysis of some 40 market announcements in the second half of 2008, we describe six key trends that highlight the evolution of the business services market.